Category: Miscellaneous

Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este

Last week (October 1st to 3rd), on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy, happened the annual Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. The event takes place annually on the grounds near the Villa d’Este hotel in Cernobbio. It usually happens in May, and is possibly the most famous of all the world-class Concours d’Elegance. Petrolicious, as always, wrote a great essay on the event, with some SPECTACULAR photos.

If you want to drool a little, it is worth checking out the link.

Buggers, I forgot!

This Monday was W-143’s third anniversary 🍻! I first uploaded a page (“About W-143”) here on June 14th 2018, at 4:13am to be more precise. I worked on the site throughout the previous night, and was eager to get things rolling. Despite the god-awful time, I was ecstatic to finally see W-143 online. On that same June 14th, later on in the afternoon, I also published my first post here. About six (!!) new models that my dear friend Gary Blythe had helped me get…😥 Back then, most of my reviews were published at Scale 143, and for the next couple of weeks I had a bear of a time “translating” that material to the format I use here. Boy, that was a lot of work (almost 200 reviews!), but good times.

It has been a long road this three years. Heck, we even went through a pandemic! Nonetheless, a very gratifying road for me. I can only hope to have many more June 14ths to celebrate. And I also hope to next time not forget the date 🙄.

New section added

Something that was bothering me was that my “Le Mans P-Z” page was getting too long. And that’s because I have a LOT of Porsches. Not my fault that Stuttgart’s cars are popular at La Sarthe…😋 So on top of the page I added a “Le Mans Porsche” link where you now can find all my Le Mans porkers. With that, the “Le Mans P-Z” will only be for manufacturers from P-Z other than Porsche.

Sad news

Earlier this morning I received some very sad news. My great friend Gary Blythe passed away last night 😥

I knew Gary since around 2003. An avid diecast collector, we met through DiecastXchange, at the time the biggest diecast forum on the web, when I started to collect 1:18s. Since we were both pretty active in the community, in about one year we both became moderators on the forum. And by then we had become good friends, even though we had an ocean between us. Around 2008 I had to stop collecting, and a little later so did he. Unfortunately I drifted away from the diecast community and we lost touch. But in early 2017 I was back, but this time collecting 1:43s. Coincidentally, he also shifted to 1:43 some time earlier. Through S143 (a now defunct 1:43 forum) we got back in touch, and instantly rekindled our friendship.

Gary had a lot of health issues, but had a heart of gold. Despite the distance between us I’m privileged to consider him a friend. The Oaf (Earl of Northumberland, His Smeliness or Mr. Ugly) will be truly missed.

Rest in peace, my friend 😥.

Happy New Year!!!

Out goes 2020, and here comes 2021. Man, what a crappy year… 😣 I’m more than glad it’s over, and probably everyone feels the same. The pandemic hit us hard, but thankfully me and all my family stayed healthy. On the other hand my income was drastically affected, so things got a lot tighter around here. I think you all certainly noticed from the very few new model reviews I’m posting. The passion is the same, and so is the interest, but since money is shorter… Even so, I should not complain. Everyone I love is healthy, and that’s all that matters 🍺.

So let’s hope that things get better in 2021. Happy New Year!!!

🍹🍾🍷🎉

New 1:18 917K from Amalgam

Thankfully it’s 1:18, therefor too big for the W-143 Garage. Because it’s EXPENSIVE – US$ 1300,00 (Classic Driver) 😲😲😲. Ultimately, however, it’s g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s! Though I’m not a big fan of weathered models, for a jewel of this caliber I would easily open an exception.

Amalgam will only make 100 models of the 1970 Daytona winner 917K, so don’t wait too long to go after yours.

“Faster” – George Harrison

I found this video on the Porsche 917 Facebook group that I follow. The author made a homage to all the pilots who lost their lives at the track, using footage from “Le Mans” to a soundtrack from George Harrison, “Faster”. Fantastic music and footage, just a shame that he accelerated the video a bit (10%?) in relation to the actual movie. One of the key aspects of “Le Mans” was that both McQueen and Lee H. Katzin did not want accelerated images for the racing scenes. At the time, a common trick to simulate speed was to speed up the camera a bit.

Still, AWESOME tune and footage.

New camera!!!

new camera

Last month I wrote about my new dioramas, since I thought that my old track diorama was not good anymore. I even mused that the next upgrade would have to be a new camera, since my old Nikon D90 is by now totally dated. A great camera, but released in 2008, so it just can’t stand up to current hardware. AND, it’s a cropped-sensor camera, so the resolution isn’t the best. But since good cameras are far from cheap, specially a full-frame one, I thought it would take a while.

However, my adorable wife and my dad (!) teamed up and got me a new one for my birthday 🥰. And not just any new camera, but possibly one of the best ones available right now, the Sony A7III!!! The A7III is one of Sony’s professional mirrorless full-frame models, with features that I never dreamt of. With a Zeiss 24-70mm lens it’s a true powerhouse.

Boy oh boy 😊!!! Now I need to learn how to use all those features.